WWII bomb found on Saint Petersburg runway: airport

An unexploded artillery shell dating from World War II was discovered under a runway at Pulkovo airport in Saint Petersburg and safely removed, an airport spokeswoman said on Friday.

An unexploded artillery shell dating from World War II was discovered under a runway at Pulkovo airport in Saint Petersburg and safely removed, an airport spokeswoman said on Friday.

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The shell was found on Thursday as work was being carried out on the runway and bomb disposal experts were called to Pulkovo, the city's main airport, to dispose of it, spokeswoman Olga Antipova told AFP.

The northern city, known at the time as Leningrad, was besieged for nearly 900 days by Nazi troops between September 1941 and January 1944, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of residents.

Heavy fighting between Nazi forces and Soviet troops took place then at Pulkovskiye Vysoti, on the outskirts of Leningrad where the Pulkovo airport is located today.